Best Total War: Warhammer Mods

Share this:

With its deep and engaging turn-based strategy, sprawling armies and epic battles, The Creative Assembly’s Total War series is known for stealing days, weeks and months at a time from its players – such is the breadth and depth offered by these types of games. Add user-made mods to this hearty post-release mix and that stretch can easily extend to years.

The latest entry, Total War: Warhammer [official site], marks a distinguished departure from the norm. Gone are the historically accurate campaigns the series is best known for, and in their place are the fantastical wargrounds and combatants of Games Workshop’s best known dystopian fantasy world. It’s the perfect platform for expanding in wild and inventive ways. As such we’ve taken the liberty of rounding up some of the best Total War: Warhammer mods available right now.

Until very recently, Total Warhammer was also set to be the first Total War game without modding support due to licensing issues between Creative Assembly and GW. Luckily that’s all sorted now and mods are officially allowed via the Steam Workshop.

Some of Total Warhammer’s best features include its rolling battlegrounds and wonderfully designed dwarfs, vampire counts, Empire soldiers and the likes, yet in its standard state camera functionality is a touch restrictive. Keeping your lovely armies alive is a pretty integral part of winning any war, and so too is being able to see where you’re sending your troops at all times.

Better Camera Mod does exactly what you might expect, then, letting you climb much higher and dip much lower than the generic camera view allows for. Zoom all the way in and see what your orcs have stuck between their teeth (I bet it’s smelly), and then shoot all the way out to better plot your plans of attack and defence. Creator kam2150 suggests that this mod makes capturing action screenshots a whole lot easier too, and that the inclusion of some nifty hot keys, that let you toggle the UI on and off, allow for more cinematic views. Best move over, Attenborough, we’ve got this covered.

One major difference Total Warhammer has over its series forerunners, besides its lack of historical accuracy, is that certain factions are prevented from invading certain regions in-line with Warhammer lore. Dresden’s Conquer Anywhere & Diplomatic Options mod not only lifts this ban by letting any non-chaos faction conquer any settlement they so choose, it also lets all factions confederate. Whereas the generic restrictions do make sense within this world, there is definitely something to be said about holding adject rule over each and every corner of the realm.

With your new found all-conquering power, why not push you influence a little further then, dear warrior? Home Region Movement Bonus Mod – another from Dresden, who you may recognise from previous Total War mods – is a nifty tweak that increases army movement by 10% within your own regions. So long as you’re not in charge of the Chaos faction (they can’t own territory, yeah?) you’ll be rewarded with a further reach, but beware: AI can take advantage of the extra help too. (There’s also a variation of this mod that extends movement to 25%.)

While we’re on the subject of battlefield maneuverability, wouldn’t it be nice to give our Legendary Lords their own unique starting points out there? It’s a small gripe, granted, but one thing that irritates me in particular about Total Warhammer’s vanilla setup is the fact you can’t do this. Whether you’re directing Balthasar Gelt or Karl Franz, they’re still gonna wind up starting out in bloomin’ Altdorf which doesn’t seem right. Enter Legendary Lord Unique Start Position which places one of each race’s Legendary Lords into another faction of that race. This spreads your Ledge Lords out and lets you play co-op as the same race, in turn adding a bit more variety to proceedings.

So we’ve pretty much locked down the logistics of battle up to now but we could really do with, well, more variety in our army. Maybe you’d like to lead a wider-flung ensemble of minor powers into this dystopian warworld. Perhaps you fancy a mod that’d unlock all unique factions in co-op play with full tech tree functionality. Folk like the Skaelings, the Vargs, the Tilea, the Estalia, the Nordland, the Necksnappers, the Crooked Moon, the Skull-Takerz (Horde), the Top Knotz…DEEP BREATH… the Mousillon, the Karak Norn OR the Kraka Drak? Factions Unlocker Campaign lets you do exactly that and you can even take charge of the Bretonnia, so long as you’re willing to use the Ork’s tech tree in doing so.

And you shouldn’t stop there. Summon the uber-cool undead Blood Knights from classic Warhammer fiction while you’re at it with the Vampire Counts mod. Creator Zaskar70 provides a pretty detailed account of the Blood Knights’ place in Warhammer lore, and also informs that their variation are “a bit tougher than Grail Knights as the lore claims that not even the Grail Knights could go lance to lance vs them.” Both lance and dismounted infantry are available to send valiently over the parapet.

If you’ve a tendency towards the Empire then both of these mods are for you. Both created by the fantastically named Prime Minister Sinister, Empire of Sigmar adds a host a brand new empire units, complete with new unit stats, that hark back to the tabletop classics of yore. Recruit the likes of the Knights Panther, dismounted Reiksguard, Ricco’s Republican Guard, and Voland’s Venators into your squadron at will, but do note that this mod will probably empower the Empire beyond competition. Then again, that’s what you’re after, isn’t it?

Pair this with Prime Minister Sinister’s Men of the Empire – a cosmetic mod that reskins Empire troops to better resemble pre-eighth edition Warhammer tabletop fare, and brings with it new armour, chainmail, and other such loyalist-favoured equipment.

Don’t get me wrong, when I go to digital war I think big. I think committing hours on end, planning meticulous strategy, sending hundreds, if not thousands, of folk to their demise. I want my guys to beat your guys and I want to tower over anyone who dares stand in my way. Although, actually, I don’t really think my Legendary Lords need to be that tall, do they? I mean, come on, in their standard state they look like those football figures with the big heads that were all the rage in the mid 90s. Resized Lords and Heroes is pretty self-explanatory in its aims as it shrinks Lords and heroes down to a more respectable, more proportionate size on the battlefield. That’s better.

Although maybe I’ve got it all wrong. Maybe bigger is better and that’s what everyone really does want. You’ll still cause the same motion in the ocean as before, mind, but The Roman Republic’s Bigger Giants, Terrorgheist and Arachnarok Spider mod boosts the size of the those three monstrosities making them a shit sight larger and more imposing than their original state. Is bigger better? That resized army of spiders and giants and ‘gheists would certainly suggest so!

Above all, the most formidable soldiers to have defending your corner are your veterans. You know, the guys who’re there from the outset, who last the pace and cover your back until the bitter end. The fact that Total Warhammer enforces a level 30 limit cap on your generals and heroes, however, means they’ll struggle to reach their true potential. Well, fret not dear vets, because Maximum Level 60 For Generals (my goodness Total Warhammer’s mods are so unoriginally named) ups that cap by a stonking 100%, meaning your longest-serving crew can treat their skill trees to their heart’s content via the intervening levels.

Similarly, Valuable Veterans recognises the time and effort your stalwart strong holders throw onto the battlefield and rewards them with significant morale and leadership bonuses. This in turn boosts their melee attack and defence prowess and whereas vets are normally only marginally more proficient than the rest of your squadron (as is the case in most Total War games), this mod makes them your strongest force by a country mile.

Any of you who’ve played Total War games in the past and have subsequently dived into its modding world will undoubtedly recognise the name Radious. They’re an award-winning team of modders who have the most Steam Workshop subscribers to Total War games for a reason – their mods rework just about everything. As total overhauls, this mod brings new values to combat, enemy AI, tweaks territorial management, rebalances stats, and the list goes on. Here’s their words on what their Total War: Warhammer mod is all about:

“Complete game overhaul mod, which offers to players big changes in campaign AI, diplomacy, land battles, reworking abilities, spells, magic, changes buildings, re-balances all unit stats and costs, reworks experience system and much more with additions of custom made units for all in-game factions.”

Masters vs Minors

Virtual real-time strategised war can be a cruel place for some and a cake walk for others. While this list should help both novices and pros alike, the following groupings should either help make Total Warhammer easier to get into, or more difficult to master.

A step up in skill from the previous mod, this ‘un doesn’t remove AI aggression completely, but does prevent them from launching a repetitive string of aggressive attacks over and over on you. AI agents will also be debuffed if/when they assassinate one of your characters.

Well… they do rework just about everything, so the whole paragraph is… well… technically correct. Only problem is that they cripple the games, creating some unbalanced pieces of shit that’s unplayable for anyone skilled. Something that article conveniently avoids to say…

Black Orcs is an elite unit, you don’t see a black orc in every corner. Besides, a black orc would never use a bow to kill an enemy, the black orc will take a choppa and cut every head he can. You clearly didn’t play tabletop warhammer, the dwarfs rarely flee, you win them with orcs using magic and flanking the units.

”One major difference Total Warhammer has over its series forerunners, besides its lack of historical accuracy, is that certain factions are prevented from invading certain regions in-line with Warhammer lore. Dresden’s Conquer Anywhere & Diplomatic Options mod not only lifts this ban by letting any non-chaos faction conquer any settlement they so choose”

Slight correction needed here. Any faction can conquer (i.e. loot, sack, raze) any other settlement in the game. Factions are limited by what they can SETTLE; Orcs and Dwarves can only occupy each others settlements, Empire and VC’s can only occupy each others settlements, no one may occupy the Norsemans lands, and Chaos cannot occupy anywhere as they are a horde faction. Conquer anywhere lifts that racial settlement restriction.

Chaos Please Wait is worth checking out too – you can find it on the Total Warhammer Steam workshop page. As far as I understand it the mod changes a value that chaos keeps track of causing it to come much later in the game giving you some time to conquer in peace.

I don’t believe that custom campaign maps have been possible on any version of TW since Medieval II. The Warscape Engine doesn’t allow for it. So if you want to get your Tolkien fix on, Third Age: Total War for Medieval II + Kingdoms remains the only game in town.

Not really… It seems odd that IF humans and dwarves went to war, that humans wouldn’t take dwarven settlements. Or that for some reason IF humans defeated all of the Orcs that they wouldn’t colonize the badlands. Or that humans couldn’t colonize parts of Norsca (with heavy penalties). Similar points regarding VC, etc.

Empire humans can’t really live in the mountains, badlands, or north in any large number due to a simple lack of food. Sure, humans might be able to live there, but not in economically meaningful way. So, I can kind of rationalize that away. It however makes no sense that dwarves and orcs can’t take human land. That is prime land good for anyone. The same goes for VCs, but in all the other land. VC should be able to occupy pretty much everything. The undead are not all that picky food.

Dunno about how well that rationalization works. I mean dwarves live there. They live in cold regions, so I would imagine that they have high metabolism. They’re basically tight bundles of muscles and fat, so they need to eat a lot… so not sure that humans really lose out here.

And come on… “not in [an] economically meaningful way”? The dwarven karaks are full of riches. If an Elector Count ever had the chance to get their hands on it they would occupy it, steal all the riches, get the mines to work, etc. The karaks are massive in lore, and heavily defensible also. It would be a stupid elector count/general who passes up a dwarven Karak.

To me it’s not really about physical realism, it’s about preserving some form of the shape of the land and the relationships within it.

Like, for humans the orcs will be this recurrent threat, they’ll come out and pillage you, but they will never existentially threaten you, instead only temporarily setting you back. Meanwhile when you send operations against them, you have to go out all the way into the mountains, making it increasingly difficult to get at their heartlands and deal with them once and for all… Unless you have dwarven support to hold those mountains for you.

If anyone can go anywhere and do anything you lose that sort of structure. The narrative becomes flatter. And because the AI can do it too, certain factions can rapidly snowball and rule the entire map.

If you want to explain it in terms of lore, I’d say you can claim that the various races don’t want to live anywhere else. For example the point of the vampires is that they consider themselves the rightful inheritors of the Empire. So they want to build their towns on the ruins of the imperial factions. What do they care about holding some orcish hovel, or some dark hole in the middle of nowhere?

“To me it’s not really about physical realism, it’s about preserving some form of the shape of the land and the relationships within it.”

Alright…? My point was not to do with physical realism or even game design. It was regarding a justification based on lore. Nothing in lore justifies a barring on colonization. If they were to say something like “oh we wanted to preserve a certain theme to the faction interactions based off the geography, which creates a nice ‘flow'” I’d find it far more palatable. Its just a game design choice. But when you claim its lore that supports it, that’s nonsense.

And I really don’t know how much you know about the Orcs in Warhammer Fantasy. They’re often treated as a minor threat, but they are actually an existential threat. A large enough of Waaagh can rival even the greatest chaos incursions (and yes I know these are alt-universe and no longer cannon, but Mark of Chaos and Storm of Chaos comes to mind). And say that you have to tackle the Orcs in the mountains, not the badlands, but say the dwarves have been wiped out (happened once when I was playing as Chaos even before I got to meet the Dwarves.. weird). Are you saying then it’s impossible to defeat them? I get the spirit of your point, but it seems rather stupid to imagine that in your Empire generals/counts would ignore the Dwarven Karaks as a means to extend their supply chains.

“If anyone can go anywhere and do anything you lose that sort of structure. The narrative becomes flatter. And because the AI can do it too, certain factions can rapidly snowball and rule the entire map.”

Come on… All Total War campaigns have a problem of the mid-late game being boring once you become dominant and grindy. Even limiting your expansion doesn’t really change this. All it means is that you have to go out every few turns with your OP stacks and auto-resolve a stupid AI’s forces.

The lore explanation really doesn’t work, as I’ve mentioned already. An Empire General or VC would ignore the dwarven karaks given the opportunity? A VC wouldn’t be interested in the riches and strategic power of a dwarven karak? The Empire factions can’t hold the badlands (see Border Princes)? I’m not saying there shouldn’t be penalties associated with certain factions colonizing/holding certain regions, but there should be changes. For one the orcs should be another horde faction without diplomacy, or an incredibly stripped down set of options. There shouldn’t be an ability to colonize the chaos wastes (when they’re added in). etc. etc. a few changes here and there. But it seems odd to say that the Empire can’t colonize Norsca, in some numbers, or anything like that.

Not sure I agree with these picks – feels like a quick rehash of the toplist from somone that doesnt really play to me. Regardless, Full Cost March Stance is much better than Home Region Movement Bonus for keeping the AI from the ridiculous running around. Chaos Divided and Empire of Sigmar are great unit mods, not to mention Cataph’s just-released TEB mod (Tilea, E-something, and Border Princes.) Molay’s Magic and Artifacts is a great one for spicing up that side of things.

No need to bash the writer. Full Cost March Stance has its own problems, in the sense that the AI avoids marching altogether because of it. It doesn’t seem to know how to use it, so that gives the player an unfair advantage, even if the AI starts using more stances like raiding or the underground tunnels. I prefer Home Region Movement because it gives everyone a bonus, so while this doesn’t stop the AI from running around like a chicken, it at least gives you the ability to stop the AI yourself. FCMS effectively removes a stance from the AI’s pool, so yeah, it might stop some of its more erratic behaviour, but it also gives you an extra stance, meaning you have even more of an advantage over an AI that is already pretty stupid.

I like “proper combat mod”. Basically a combat rebalance.
And “Better AI Recruitment & Army composition”, wich means more mele units, less missile and light cavalry units and less artillery in the enemy armies.

That Faction Unlocker is excellent, been having an awful lot of fun with that. Worth mentioning, the mod maker created a series of mods to unlock all empire factions, all greenskin factions, all etc. etc. so you can literally play any faction in the game.

There are links to all those mods in the description of the Faction Unlocker mod in the Steam workshop.

Cataph’s mods are a hit for me, and they are quite lore-respectful. Also, if you add Valuable Veterans to your mods, don’t forget to add the Varg & Skaeling nerf add-on, which scales the Norscans down back to normal (specifically, their Blacksmith building), since with VV their most miserable 3 Marauders-3 Chaos Hounds-1 Horsemen raiding party became capable of decimating any of the small settlement garrisons with incredibly few losses.

A couple of cosmetic mods that have become essential to me are the
Building Progression Icons mod and the Varied Generals mod. The first makes building icons more visually specific and subtle, while the second introduces some variety in the way Lords look, so that you’re not always recruiting That Guy With The Goatee (Empire) or The Ironbreaker (Dwarf). The modder’s now working on the other factions, so it’s all quite promising.